


The Castle of Mystery

by xylaria



Category: Rosemary and Thyme, The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 10:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylaria/pseuds/xylaria
Summary: When a visiting official is found dead at Ms. Cackle's, Hecate Hardbroom knows exactly who to go to when the officials can't find the killer.





	The Castle of Mystery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phantomlistener](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomlistener/gifts).



"Rosemary."

Rosemary jumped, knocking askew the Lycium barbarum she had been potting.  Laura, next to her, let out an undignified shriek and sprayed her spade of dirt in Rosemary's face.

"Hecate!" Rosemary exclaimed, straightening the L. barbarum in it its pot and using her sleeve to wipe the dirt from her face before turning to glare at Hecate where she was standing behind her. 

Hecate stood against the wall, a solid wall with no doors or windows, arms crossed, eyebrows raised. Rosemary was relieved to see she had dressed to blend into the non-witching world in a black jumper and jeans, her long hair neatly braided.

Next to her, Laura was gaping at Hecate, spade still in one hand, half potted plant in other.

"How did you—I could swear there wasn't a door on this side of the room. Sneaking up on a person like that!” She waved her spade, sending another shower of dirt over Rosemary. 

"Laura," Rosemary interrupted before she got another face full of dirt. "I would like you to meet Hecate. Hecate, this is my partner Laura."

Laura gave Rosemary a skeptical look, but set down the spade and pot, wiped her hands on her pants and held one hand out to Hecate. Hecate ignored the proffered hand, placing her hand on her forehead, and bowing.

"Well met, Laura. Rosemary's letters have spoken of you often."

Laura withdrew her hand slowly, once again eying Hecate with suspicion.

"I can't say that she has mentioned much about you..."

"Hecate was one of my friends in school when I was a girl," Rosemary said quickly. "We've kept in touch over the years, mostly about plants. She's deputy headmistress at our old school and teaches..." Rosemary faltered.

"Chemistry and biology," Hecate stepped in smoothly.

Laura's attention drifted from Hecate to plain white wall behind her.

"How did you get in here? I could swear there wasn't a door back here..." Laura stepped around Hecate and tapped, then pushed, on a section of the wall.

Hecate raised an eyebrow at Rosemary, who shrugged appologetically.

"So what brings you here, Hecate? And during the school year?” Rosemary asked, leaning back against the potting table. 

Hecate's expression immediately sobered.

“I—we—have a problem. I need your help."

 

***

 

Rosemary accepted the cup of tea from Hecate and took a sip, savoring the flavors. She had always thought magical tea had a little—something—that regular tea did not have, though she had never been able to figure out if it was the plants or the processing that made the difference.

They had left Laura to, grumpily, re-pot the rest of the herbs, and, after a quick cleaning spell, Hecate had brought them to a small witching tea house two villages away.

"There is a perfectly good teahouse in the village, you know," Rosemary said after another sip. Not that she was complaining. It had been years since she had had magical tea. 

Hecate smiled slightly. "You know I am not good at blending in. I would rather not leave you with any more awkward explanations than I already have. I'm sorry, I did not realize Laura did not know."

Rosemary shook her head.

"Not your fault, it was a reasonable assumption. I just haven't been part of that world, this world—“ Rosemary's gesture took in the brooms leaning against tables, pointy witches hats and cloaks hanging on the coat racks, and black cats prowling between tables. “—in such a long time. If I ever really was. It never came up."

"Do you use any magic anymore?" Hecate asked. While they had kept in touch, overt discussion of magic was something they tended to avoid. 

"Oh, the occasional magical plant here and there. Sometimes a simple potion to help a struggling plant. But I was always rubbish at magic, and I can't say I remember much beyond first form spells. Certainly nothing large enough to be noticed."

Hecate nodded and sipped at her tea. Rosemary took a moment to study her old friend. And she had aged since they had last seen each other. New wrinkles lined her face and her hands where she held her tea cup had developed age spots, just as Rosemary’s had. But her eyes had not changed, and her hair still fell in a long, dark braid over her shoulder. 

"So what was it that you needed my help with?" Rosemary asked after the silence had stretched. Hecate had always been able to out-silence her, it was one of her more irritating traits. 

Hecate sighed, sitting up straighter and pushing her tea cup away. She flicked her fingers, and Rosemary felt a spell surround them, something for privacy, she assumed.

"Two weeks ago, Cackle’s served as host to a party of visiting education ministers and secretaries from Britain, as well as several foreign countries. It was part of a tour of British witching schools to showcase the best of British witching education, maybe set up some exchange programs. The ministers were stuck at the school an extra night because of a storm. The British Sub-Secretary of Education could not be found when they were ready to depart. He was later found dead in the school gardens. We called in the witching inquisitors, of course; they ruled it an accidental death from Nerium maculata, which was found near the body. " Hecate shook her head. "But I don't keep Nerium maculata in the gardens or anywhere on school grounds. I would never keep anything truly dangerous, much less something that produces a contact poison. It's a school full of teenage witches, and I'm not daft.” Had the topic been less serious Rosemary would have chuckled at the exasperation in Hecate’s voice.

Hecate shook her head. ”The inquisitors could not be persuaded. They insisted it was an accident and closed the case. All the ministers and secretaries have moved on to the rest of their tour. But girls have been seeing strange things in the hall, girls that aren’t inclined toward that sort of thing. They’re scared. And I know that was no accident, and I would rather not have someone who can pull that off wandering free around Cackle’s or any other school.”

Rosemary nodded and waited for Hecate to go on, but Hecate once again remained silent, pulling her tea cup back towards herself and taking a sip. She grimaced and set the cup back in its saucer. A wave of her hand over the cup caused steam to rise, and she picked her cup back up and took another sip.

"What do you think I can do?" Rosemary asked finally, when it was clear Hecate had no more to add.

"In your letters, you said that you've seen a number of murder investigations, and that Laura used to be part of the police. That you've both helped solve murders. We need your help. The inquisitors won't do any more. Ada and I have not been able to find anything. I know it’s not your usual work, and I don’t know how much we would be able to pay you, but I would sleep better knowing what actually happened.”

Rosemary considered. They were nearly done with their current job; if Hecate helped with magic, they could finish the next day, and they didn’t have anything lined up afterwards, since late fall and winter was a slow time for the gardening business.

"Laura will need a dispensation," Rosemary hedged.

“Of course.” Hecate nodded.

“And we’ll need some help finishing our current job.” Hecate raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Setting her cup down decisively, she stood, grabbing her coat off the hook next to their table. 

“I will return for you both as soon as the dispensation has been arranged.”

Rosemary stood, and Hecate waved a hand. Rosemary found herself back in the work shed with Laura gaping in front of her. Rosemary sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.

 

***

 

Rosemary hung her jacket in the wardrobe and looked around. It was much grander than the room she had had at school, with a double bed, a wardrobe, and a wide window overlooking the grounds. Tranquil watercolor landscapes decorated the walls and the bed was covered in soft green quilt. It was also much grander than the rooms she and Laura usually shared while working. Hecate said it had been fixed up especially for the visitors.

Sitting down on the bed, Rosemary waved her hand experimentally. The shoe on the floor next to the door twitched.

"Witchy brew it may not be, but bring that shoe right here to me.” She made a face at the ridiculousness of the words, but the shoe reluctantly moved across the floor, stopping just short of where she would be able to easily pick it up.  Sighing, she flopped back on the bed.

Laura had taken the news of the witching world and Rosemary's witchy past with three parts fury and one part glee. She didn't understand how, after having been a part of something so, well, magical, Rosemary could have given it up, much less how it could not have occurred to her to tell Laura about it.

When Hecate had arrived that morning to help finish their job, Laura had watched in fascination while Hecate had finished potting 100 plants in only a couple of minutes, and then transferred them to the flats for transport by their employer without getting so much as a spec of soil on her hands. Then she had turned to Rosemary.

“You mean we could have been doing that this whole time?!” she had practically shouted, hands waving dramatically. Rosemary had tried to explain that she was out of practice, that she had never been as powerful as Hecate, and besides, wouldn’t it have looked odd to their employer? Laura wasn’t had not been in a mood to listen. When they had arrived at Cackle’s, Hecate had showed them their rooms with an adjoining door. Laura had listened to Hecate's instructions on how the rooms could be transformed into a sitting room and bedroom instead of two bedrooms by simply moving a metal slider on the appropriate side of the door, and then very pointedly closed and bolted the connecting door. 

Whispering and footsteps in the hallway made Rosemary sit up and slip on her shoe. She managed to summon the second shoe with only a hand gesture and put it on before walking across the room and sticking her head out into the hallway. 

The two girls in the hallway went silent when her door opened, looking up guiltily. The shorter girl had a yellow and gold sash around her waist and was carrying a cauldron, while the taller girl wearing a plain purple sash appeared to have been applying the cauldron’s contents to the wall with a paintbrush that was now dripping greenish fluid onto the floor.

Rosemary stepped over and dipped her finger in the glop just as Laura came out of her door. First sniffing, then tasting the potion, she wrinkled her nose.

"Alarm spell, if I'm not mistaken, but you've put way too much Brugmansia in it; if it even works, it will deafen half the castle every time anyone passes through this hallway.” Rosemary had gotten quite good at making it in her student days, it was quite handy for any number of things where a teenage girl might want at little advanced notice of the approach of other students or teachers. 

"We've keyed it to only alert for people other than students or teachers," the taller girl said, at the same time as the shorter said, "I told you that was too many trumpet flowers!"

"Given that I would prefer not to be deafened every time I enter or leave my room, I think you had better clean this up," Rosemary said quickly, before an argument could develop.

The girls glared at each other for a second; then the shorter girl scrunched up her face in concentration and waved her hand, lips moving silently. Three quarters of the mixture disappeared, leaving purple smears across the wall. Viewing her work, the girl sighed.

"I'm never going to get silent spells. Wash and scrub, shine and gleam, make this wall completely clean." The purple smears vanished. "I'm Maud and this is Mildred. I don't think I've seen you around before." She gave Rosemary and Laura a suspicious glance.

"I'm Rosemary, and this is Laura. I went to school here when I was a girl." Rosemary saw all the interest go out of both girls; clearly alumni were not their favorite visitors. 

“This—” Rosemary waved her hand to encompass the wall, Maud’s cauldron, and the paintbrush that Mildred was shoving back into her backpack. “—wouldn’t happen to have something to do with that fellow who died here a couple of weeks ago, would it?”

The girls exchanged a guilty look. Mildred opened her mouth, but Maud cut in before she could speak. 

“We’re not supposed to talk about it,” Maud said severely, giving Mildred a pointed look. 

“I’m sure they didn’t mean us,” Rosemary said, trying to sound her most reasonable. “Ms. Hardbroom is an old friend of mine.”

“No, Maud’s right, we’re really not supposed to talk about it,” Mildred said, though she did sound like she regretted it. 

At that moment, Hecate appeared in the hallway. Laura let out a shriek, earning her puzzled looks from the girls and a condescending glare from Hecate. Hecate was dressed in witching clothes now, a look Rosemary knew she had purposefully designed to terrify students when she first started teaching and got tired of being mistaken for a student herself. Based on the looks on Maud and Mildred’s faces, its effects had on increased with time. 

“As much as I appreciate your newfound caution, Mildred Hubble, in this case, Ms. Boxer is correct. You may answer any questions either she or Ms. Thyme asks you.” Hecate turned her attention to Rosemary. “I came to tell you dinner is in an hour. I have arranged for food in my rooms, unless you would like to sample the dining hall food for old times' sake.” She paused, and Rosemary quickly shook her head. Hecate had included some scathing comments on the current cook in one of her letters. “You will remember where Ms. Foxbroom’s rooms used to be. Perhaps Ms. Spellbody and Ms. Hubble can take you on a tour of the gardens in the meantime.” And with that, she disappeared. 

“What was that?!” Laura was staring where Hecate had disappeared. 

“That was Hecate. You remember, you met her yesterday. And earlier today.” 

“She wasn’t like, like that, earlier.” Laura waved her hands towards where Hecate had been standing. “What was she trying to do, be every witch stereotype at once? All she needs is a broom and a black cat.” Rosemary winced.

“Well, actually…” Mildred started, then blinked. “Wait, why don’t you know that witches have brooms and cats? Aren’t you a witch?”

Laura looked indignant. “Of course I’m not a witch. I’m a gardener.”

Maud and Mildred gaped at them. “If you’re not witches, what are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“I am a witch, and Laura has a dispensation from the Great Wizard to be here,” Rosemary said, turning to walk down the corridor in the direction she remembered the gardens being. “We are here because Ms. Hardbroom invited us. Now, how about you show us around the gardens?”

Maud shook herself, then pulled herself up straight. “This way.” She took the lead, for which Rosemary was grateful. She had regularly gotten lost in the castle even her last year in school; the place was a maze. 

After five minutes of twisting through narrow hallways, they exited through a small door into a large walled garden on the south side of the castle. The beds were arranged in neat rectangles edged with bricks and with stone pathways running between them. At this time of year, most of the plants should have been brown and dead; however, many of the beds were blooming like it was early spring.

“These are the main gardens,” Maud said, gesturing broadly. “There are also several smaller gardens for specialty plants or particular class projects, but the teachers keep those locked.” She stepped forward and gestured at the first bed to the left of the door. 

“These are the kitchen beds. We are absolutely not allowed to touch these or pick any vegetables.” Next to Maud, Mildred ignored Maud’s pointed comment and the rule and picked a tomato. A faint golden shimmer showed around the plants where she had disturbed some sort of spell. Maud rolled her eyes and kept going, gesturing to the right. “Here we have primarily flower beds, but they also have some herbs and plants for potions. The mixed beds help prevent pests and disease without the use of any pesticides or spells directly on the plants.”

Maud led them through the simple garden, explaining the spells that allowed plants to grow out of season, what types of plants were in each bed, and how this plant or that plant helped prevent pests or increase magical properties of another plant in the bed. Occasionally Mildred would add an anecdote of what went wrong when she added too much of this or that plant to her potion. After thirty minutes, they arrived at an empty bed in the corner of the garden. Maud paused; however, it didn’t take long for Mildred to explain. 

“This is where that man was found. They had to rip out all of the plants in the whole bed in case there was contamination from the plant that killed him. And there is a shield to prevent anything from growing there for a year.” Mildred reached out a hand, and a red light flared around the bed.

Laura, who had been trailing behind looking at the previous bed which contained a variety of tropical plants, including several orchids, hurried to catch up. “What can you girls tell us about the man who died?” she asked, stepping up to stand next to Rosemary. 

“They wouldn’t let us see him, sent us to class straight away when he was found and buttoned the castle up tight.” Mildred looked disappointed. “Enid snuck her cat out onto one of the window ledges, but it was too high up, and cats have strange vision anyway.” Laura and Rosemary looked at each other in alarm at the implications of that, but let it go. Thankfully, these girls weren’t their responsibility. 

“Do you know who found the body?” Laura asked. 

“I think it was HB, wasn’t it, Mille?” Maud said, looking to Mildred for confirmation. 

Mildred nodded. “If you want something in this castle found, Ms. Hardbroom will find it,” she added.

“And did either of you talk to Mr. Gillman?” Both girls shook their heads.

“None of them talked to us much,” Mildred said. “It was all quite dull until the murder. They came, and made some boring speeches, and watched our classes.” 

“Did you notice anyone he did talk to?” Laura was now in full interrogation mode, but neither Maud or Mildred looked the least bit intimidated. 

“The other members of his group of course. HB and Ms. Cackle,” Maud said thoughtfully. “All the teachers, really. Ethel.” Maud rolled her eyes, and Rosemary guessed Ethel must be another student.

“I heard him fighting with Ms. Crag,” Mildred chimed in. “And with Ms. Bat, but he was fighting with her about the use of the Locrian mode in chanting for weather spells. Ms. Bat has very strong opinions about weather spells.” The last was said with the air of a student that had had to listen to those opinions at length. 

“What was he fighting with Ms. Crag about?” Laura leaned forward with interest. “And when were they fighting?” Mildred shrugged. 

“It was the day they arrived, late that night. They were at the other end of the hall, and I couldn’t hear. But they looked serious, lots of hand waving.” Mildred waved her hands about dramatically to demonstrate. 

As Laura opened her mouth for another question, a bell rang out over the garden.

“That’s the dinner bell,” Maud said. “Do you need help finding HB’s rooms? I’m sure we would be excused for being late if we were helping you.” Mildred looked hopeful at Maud’s statement.

“No, I know where they are,” Rosemary said, trying hard to keep from smiling at Maud and Mildred’s disappointed look. Clearly they were no more eager to sample the dining hall food than she was. 

 

***

 

Rosemary managed to find Hecate’s rooms, which in their school days had been the rooms of Deputy Headmistress Foxbroom, with only a few wrong turns. When she knocked, the door swung silently open.

“Come in,” Hecate’s voice came from an open door on the far side of the office. The office had not changed significantly since her student days, Rosemary noted as she and Laura walked through. Some of the rugs had been replaced for brighter and less worn ones and there were now a few plants somehow squeezed onto the bookshelves near the window, but it still contained the same heavy wooden furniture and the same watercolor paintings of the school still hung on the walls.

Hecate stood from the table as they entered the sitting room from the office. In contrast to the office, the sitting room clearly bore Hecate’s touch, with dark wood furniture and botanical illustrations interspersed with brightly colored abstract paintings hanging on the walls. Near the door to the office, a small sofa and an arm chair were clustered around a fireplace where a small fire currently blazed. Across the room in front of a large window was a small table with four chairs and three place settings. 

“I’m glad to see that Mildred managed to avoid turning you into frogs or something similarly unfortunate,” Hecate said, gesturing for them to sit at the table. 

“Turn us into frogs?!” Laura said with alarm, taking the chair farthest from the fire.

“Isn’t she a bit old for that?” Rosemary asked, sitting next to Laura. Hecate gave a put-upon sigh and summoned a cart covered with dishes with a wave of her hand. 

“Imagine yourself at that age, with five times the power and one fifth the discipline. Mildred is not from a magical family.” 

“Oh. My,” Rosemary murmured, helping herself to the plate of potatoes Hecate handed her. “I’m surprised they let her in after I turned out as such a disappointment.” Laura opened her mouth to protest, but Rosemary waved her silent. “No, no. I’m quite happy where I ended up, but for a witch to get a non-magical education and live outside of the magical world, it was considered quite the disappointment; a disgrace, really.”

“Mildred was allowed entrance under… special circumstances. And against my advice.” Hecate said, looking at Rosemary almost apologetically.

“This chicken is wonderful,” Rosemary commented, changing the subject. 

 

***

 

After dinner, Hecate cleared the plates and then summoned dessert and coffee to the sitting area in front of the fire.

“I know you told me the basics, Hecate, but could you give me the long version? Everything you have so far, what you noticed, what the investigators discovered, everything,” Rosemary said, settling back on the sofa next to Laura and biting into a lemon square. Hecate, sitting in the arm chair, took a sip of her coffee before beginning. 

“Sub-Secretary for Education Elbert Gillman was born in 1941; he attended St. Alfred’s Wizard Academy and Oxford Wizards College where he specialized in chanting. He taught briefly, but quickly made his way into school leadership, first as headmaster of St. Alfred’s, then Wizarding School Commissioner, and most recently as Sub-Secretary of British Wizarding Education. His mother is in good health and lives in London. He has one brother who owns a broom dealership, and two nephews who both attend St. Alfred’s.” Hecate paused and took another sip of her coffee.

“We got word of the visit just before the school year began. Several visiting commonwealth ministers and officials of various sorts were to tour prominent British wizards and witches schools. There was mention of setting up some exchange programs. The group consisted of the ministers or secretaries of education for India, South Africa, Kenya, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as several heads or deputy-heads of schools in those countries. I have no idea why those countries in particular were chosen. There was also Sub-Secretary Gillman, Hazel Horvath, the Sub-Secretary for Wizarding primary education, and Oliver Goodspell, a high-level administrator from Oxford.”

“The delegation arrived as scheduled on the 21st of September. They were supposed to stay only one night, then move on to Pentangle’s; however, there was a bad storm on the 22nd, and they decided to stay one more night and make the flight in better weather. The entire delegation was to eat breakfast in the dining hall with the girls and then fly to Pentangle's. Both the Kenyan Education Minister and a headmistress from Canada reported seeing Mr. Gillman leave his room for the dining hall just ahead of them the morning of the 23rd. However, he never arrived at breakfast. When he still had not arrived as they were gathering to leave, we went searching and found him in the garden.”

“How did the Ministers lose sight of him if he was right in front of them?” Laura asked. Rosemary laughed.

“Those corridors are so twisty, when I was a first year, I lost a ball for six months when it bounced off of a wall. Turned out it was only six feet from where I had looked, down a side corridor I didn’t know existed.” Hecate smiled. Rosemary had been trying to throw the ball to Hecate at the time, but she had never had very good aim. 

“What did the investigators find?” Laura asked. “I assume they're trained for this sort of thing, like the police? But with magical forensics?”

“Not much,” Hecate said with a sigh. “He was lying in one of the garden beds on top of a mature Nerium maculata plant. I know for a fact that that plant had not been there when I walked the gardens two days prior, but the investigators also found no signs that it had been recently transplanted, and it is impossible to magically accelerate the growth of a Nerium maculata plant. Autopsy found no marks on him; he died of contact with the Nerium maculata. They interviewed every person that was at the school that day or the day before, down to every new first year. It took days before I could get them to focus in class again. As much as they can ever focus.” 

Rosemary and Laura both chuckled at the fond exasperation in Hecate’s voice. Laura dusted the crumbs off of her front and stood up. “Well, I’ve had enough magic and murder for one evening. I’m for bed. Thank you for the dinner, Hecate; I’ll see you in the morning, Rosemary.” 

When Laura was gone, Rosemary poured herself another cup of coffee and tucked her feet underneath her on the sofa.

“So, Hecate, how’s Pippa?” she asked. They had a lot of catching up to do. 

 

***

 

The next morning, Laura knocked on the dividing door early. Rosemary rolled out of bed with a groan and opened the door. Laura was already dressed and smiled cheerily at Rosemary.

“Late night? You’d better get dressed, we need to get investigating.” Laura pushed past Rosemary into her room and herded Rosemary into the bathroom and handed her her toothbrush, then returned a moment later with a glass and a bottle of aspirin. “The sooner you’re dressed, the sooner you can get some tea.”

When Rosemary emerged into the hallway, fully washed and dressed, she found Laura chatting with Hecate. Laura turned to Rosemary with a look of glee.

“I never realized you were such a troublemaker in your school years. Hecate has been telling me the most wonderful stories.” Rosemary groaned and put her head in her hands. 

“I was just explaining why Laura should not tell any of the students that she is not magical.” Hecate’s tone was haughty, but her eyes were laughing. 

“How about some breakfast, before I decide to ask the students if anyone’s tried what we tried on old FB our third year?” 

“They most certainly have not,” Hecate said with some alarm, but quickly transferred them all to a hallway outside the dining room. “I have a meeting and then classes, so I will see you both again at dinner.” She handed Rosemary and Laura each a folded piece of paper. “For if you get lost.” And with that, she disappeared. 

 

***

 

“Couldn’t Mr. Gillman simply have magicked himself into the garden?” Laura asked as they joined the stream of chattering students heading into the dining hall. A few students eyed them curiously, but they were largely ignored. There had been a lot of strangers in the castle recently. 

“A transference, unless you are exceptionally magically powerful and skilled, requires a solid knowledge of where you are going. Otherwise you might end up in a wall,” Rosemary explained. 

Laura looked alarmed. “That would be unfortunate. So how did Hecate appear in our plant shed then?” 

In the dining hall, breakfast foods were arranged along the walls, with a stack of plates at one end. Rosemary and Laura each took a plate and began to fill it.

“Hecate is that exception. She is above average in her power, and she is very skillful. When you transfer, you essentially send your mind ahead of you first, to make sure there is nothing where you want to end up. It is much harder to do that, though not impossible, for somewhere you’ve never been before.” Rosemary scanned the hall, trying to find a place to sit in the sea of teenage girls. On the far side of the hall she spotted Mildred, Maud, and another girl sitting with their heads closely bent together. 

“There are our friends from yesterday. Shall we go sit with them?” Laura nodded and followed Rosemary across the crowded dining hall.

“Good morning, girls,” Rosemary said cheerily as they approached the table. All three girls jerked back, looking at them in alarm. Laura noticed their expressions and sat down, leaning in conspiratorially.

“So, what are you girls up to this morning? I hear you can play lots of good pranks with magic.” Maud shook her head vehemently, but the girl they hadn’t met yet grinned. 

“You can play great pranks with magic. Once Mildred and I…” She trailed off into mumbles as Maud clamped her hand over her friend’s mouth. 

“You will NOT be telling Ms. Hardbroom’s friends about all of your pranks. I would like to make it to graduation. Is that clear?” The girl nodded, and Maud let go. “Ms. Thyme, Ms. Boxer, this is Enid.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Enid,” Laura said. Rosemary nodded in agreement, mouth full of eggs. Mildred jumped up from the table, the other two girls scrambling up with her.

“Well, we’ve got to go, things to do,” Mildred said hurriedly. Enid nodded vigorously and grabbed Maud’s arm. Maud managed to grab one final piece of toast before her friends hauled her away. The rest of the hall was also beginning to empty out as the time for the first class approached, and Rosemary and Laura soon found their entire corner deserted. They finished eating in silence, cleaned up their plates and stepped back into the hallway.

“Well, now what?” Laura asked, looking around at the empty hall. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to investigate or interview people when everyone is in classes. And all the other uppity-ups are gone, so we can’t talk to them.” 

“Who I really want to talk to is this Ms. Crag,” Rosemary said, heading off down the lefthand corridor. “I want to know what she and Mr. Gillman were fighting about after he arrived.”

“She does seem a good place to start. What did Hecate say she taught? Crystophocy? Crystomancy?”

“Crystallomagy,” Rosemary said, taking another turn and going down a flight of stairs. “It’s a new subject here; I don’t know much about it, but from what Hecate said, it’s all the rage right now. The use of different crystals to amplify magical power.”

“Right. And Ms. Crag was only hired right before the semester began, the previous teacher having backed out at the last minute. Is there a reason you aren’t magicking us to wherever we’re going? All these stairs!”

“I don’t know exactly where this new classroom is, and I was never much good at transference to begin with,” Rosemary said, considering her options as they came to another intersection. “And it has been 50 years.” Rosemary consulted the map Hecate had given them and turned left.

Abruptly, the corridor became brighter as more lights appeared overhead, and in front of them, a well-scrubbed door stood open, emitting a soft purple glow.

“Here we are,” Rosemary declared triumphantly, folding her map and sliding it into her back pocket. In the room a middle-aged woman with greying blond hair and sparkly purple robes was bent over the desk at the front of the room. Rosemary knocked on the door frame, and the woman started, sending the crystal she had been working with off the desk and bouncing across the floor. 

“Oooh, you startled me,” she exclaimed, standing up dramatically with a hand on her chest.

“Sorry to interrupt, we didn’t mean to scare you,” Rosemary said, stepping into the room and taking a minute to look around. Across from the door, large south facing windows filled the room with light. A large cabinet filled with crystals of various sizes and colors dominated one wall of the room, the crystals glittering in the light from the window. Along the opposite wall, books and plants were arranged neatly on dark wood shelves. 

“Ms. Crag, is it? I’m Rosemary Boxer, and this is my partner, Laura Thyme. I was hoping you could tell me a bit about crystallomagy, if you have a moment. It wasn’t taught when I was in school.” 

“Of course. And you must call me Lucy. Please, have a seat.” She gestured, and two chairs slid from behind the student desks to rest in front of the large desk at the front of the room. “Crystallomagy, at its most basic, is the practice of using crystals to focus and amplify magic. That magic may be a spell, a potion, or a chant. Different crystals can have different effects, depending on the composition and cut of the stone. For instance, amethyst purifies the intention of the work, an abalone shell can mitigate negative aspects of the work, or amber can accelerate healing or growth when working with plants or animals. A prism, properly cut, may split a work into its component pieces to allow for easier study. However, to do that, a witch must know not only the effects of each crystal and shape, but be able to focus her magic through the crystal properly. Done improperly, the magic can backlash on the witch so foolish as to attempt it insufficiently prepared.”

Rosemary nodded. “That sounds remarkable. The girls here are lucky to have to have the opportunity to study such a complex art at this level.”

“Tell me,” Laura said, “where did you learn this, since it isn’t commonly taught at this level?” Lucy seemed to swell with pride.

“You are correct, it is as skill not learned until the university level, if at all, until quite recently. I myself studied at Oxford Wizards and Witches College. It is only recent developments to make the use safer that has allowed crystallomagy to be taught below the university level.” 

“Oh, did you know the poor Mr. Gillman from university then? One of the students told us that you seemed to know each other.” 

Lucy looked startled, but covered it quickly. “We were at Oxford at the same time, but I wouldn’t say we knew each other well. He studied chanting, and I was studying crystallomagy, quite different areas, really.” Abruptly, she stood. “Now, if that answers your questions, I really must be getting ready for my next class; the students will be here soon.”

Out in the hall, Rosemary pulled her map out of her pocket again and began down the hallway in what she hoped was the direction of the main part of the castle. 

“How did the investigators miss that one of the teachers went to school with the victim?” Laura said, following her down the hall. 

“I don’t know,” Rosemary said, turning left and leading them up a short flight of stairs. “And did you hear what she said about amber accelerating growth and healing in plants? Could she have used that to make the plant look like it hadn’t been transplanted?”

“But Hecate said that she had an alibi, that she was up sitting with a sick student most of the night. She saw her there multiple times during the night when she went to check on the child.”

Rosemary sighed. “You’re right. Even with crystals boosting her, it would take time to transplant the Nerium maculata with all the precautions needed to avoid poisoning herself.” 

“What about Ms. Bat?” Laura stopped as they came to a cross corridor where several cats were sunning themselves on a window ledge dotted with crystals. Reaching out, she pet one which promptly rolled on its back and began to purr, knocking one of the crystals to the ground. “Mildred said she also heard them arguing. About storm spells. And the group was delayed by a big storm.”

Rosemary considered, idly petting another cat that came along the window ledge to bump its head against her hand. “It doesn’t seem likely, Ms. Bat has been here for ages, nearly 40 years. And she has no connection to Mr. Gillman.”

“That we know of. We didn’t know about Ms. Crag’s connection to him either.” Laura pulled her hand back quickly as the cat took a swipe at it with one of its paws.

“That we know of,” Rosemary agreed, starting walking again. “We may as well talk to her; it’s not like there is anything else for us to do. I’m not sure what Hecate thought we could do that the investigators couldn’t; it sounds like they were very thorough.”

“They didn’t find out about Ms. Crag knowing Mr. Gillman at Oxford.”

“They didn’t tell Hecate about Ms. Crag knowing Mr. Gillman at Oxford. They probably didn’t tell Hecate everything they knew about everybody. The coppers in the non-magical world certainly don’t. And she has an alibi, so they may not have thought it relevant.”

“All right then,” Laura said, stopping next to another cross corridor just as a bell sounded through the hallway. “Where do we find Ms. Bat?”

 

***

 

Ms. Bat was in her classroom, just around the corner, empty of students for the moment during the class change.

“Ah, you must be Ms. Boxer and Ms. Thyme,” she said with a smile when she saw them in the doorway. “Hecate told us you would be around, asking questions. Please, come in.”

Rosemary chose to perch on top of one of the student desks, rather than move chairs or sit behind a desk. “We were wondering what you could tell us about Mr. Gillman.” 

Ms. Bat nodded and seated herself behind her desk. “Mr. Gillman is a fine administrator, though, if I may say so, not the best chanter. He has the strangest ideas on modal variations in weather spells; we’ve been arguing about it for years.”

“Years?” Rosemary asked, surprised.

“Yes, well, not in person of course. In the chanting education forums. This is the first time I have had the chance to meet him in person.”

“We heard you had quite the argument about weather spells the day he got here.” Laura said, leaning forward slightly. 

“We did indeed!” Ms. Bat sat straighter, pulling a short wand from behind her ear and using it to gesture with. “He insists that the Locrian mode, Locrian! Because the diminished tone can mitigate the impact of a too-forceful spell to prevent damage. And you can see how well that worked. He called a storm that kept us shut in here for a whole day.”

“He caused the storm that trapped them here?” Laura asked cautiously.

“Oh, yes,” Ms. Bat said vehemently. “Insisted on demonstrating that he was right. Just a little bit of rain, he said. Won’t even hardly notice at this time of year. Like I said, not the best chanter. I knew right away he had overdone it. Tried to mitigate it myself, but I’m just not powerful enough. And Algernon just can’t quite manage chanting after having been a frog for so long. He ribbits, you know.” 

Laura looked at her, mouth hanging open for a second, before Rosemary could see her decide not to ask. A moment later, a swarm of gossiping girls came through the door, and Rosemary and Laura escaped back out into the corridor. 

“Well, I suppose extended time as a frog might throw off your rhythm. Is that common?” Laura mused as she waited for Rosemary to decide on a direction.

“Not as far as I know of.” Rosemary flipped the map right side up, then led them to a small sitting area just around the corner. “But I didn’t live in the magical world for very long. Just through school, really. I was just too far behind before I came in, and didn’t have the talent to catch up, not having been raised in a magical family. Do you still think Ms. Bat should be a suspect?”

Laura considered for a moment, seating herself next to Rosemary on a maroon love seat and picking up and examining a crystal on the side table. She shook her head, setting the crystal back on the table . “She seemed genuine to me. Though that’s the second person that has a connection to Mr. Gillman that we didn’t know about. And she doesn’t have an alibi.”

“But to kill someone over an academic debate. It seems extreme.”

“No more extreme than some of the other things we’ve seen.” Laura raised her eyebrows.

“True.” Rosemary conceded, leaning back and letting her head rest on the back of the sofa. “Lets leave them both on the list for now. Who else is on the list?”

Laura ticked the names off on her fingers. “Ms. Crag, Ms. Bat. None of the visitors have an alibi according to Hecate, but we can’t talk to any of them. And of course most of the teachers and students don’t have alibis for the whole night, though both Hecate and Ms. Cackle checked on the sick student during the night.”

Rosemary groaned. “That’s still too many. How are we going to narrow it down?”

“Isn’t there some magic that can help?” Laura waved an imaginary wand through the air. “Some sort of truth finding spell?” 

“There very well might be, but I certainly don’t know it, and I assume the Inquisitors did. Why don’t we go to the library and see what we can find on the plant used? Stick with our strengths.”

Map out again, Rosemary led them from the sitting area out into the empty corridors and down a series of narrow twisting hallways to the library. It was sparsely populated at this time of day, with all but a few of the older students in classes. She noted that Maud, Mildred, and Enid were huddled around a table in the back corner. 

Not bothering to try to remember the book finding spell, Rosemary turned immediately toward the librarian, a young woman who seemed to be torn between a librarian stereotype and a witch stereotype. Her dark hair was pulled back in a severe bun, cat eye glasses sat on her nose, and she wore a soft grey cardigan embroidered with purple flowers over her traditional black robes. The black cat draped over her shoulders lifted its head and followed them with yellow eyes as they approached the desk. 

“Excuse me?” Rosemary asked, when the woman did not seem to notice them. The librarian finished the sentence she was writing, then looked up from up from her notebook and smiled.

“Yes?”

“I was wondering, I need some references about Nerium maculata, and it has been a while. I don’t remember my library spells very well.” Rosemary gave the librarian a sheepish look.

“Oh, of course. You must be the friends Ms. Hardbroom mentioned at the last staff meeting.” She closed her eyes for a second, and books began to float off of the library shelves and make their way over to the desk. She looked over the stack of ten or so books, then selected three and handed them to Rosemary. “I think these are probably what you’re looking for, but if not, bring them back and you can try some of these others.”

Rosemary accepted the books, thanked the librarian and made her way to a table. Handing the top book to Laura, she opened the second.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Laura asked, opening her book and scanning through the index. 

“Information on transplanting, or properties of the poison. I remember that there were quite an extensive set of precautions for safe handling, since the plant produces a potent contact poison, but since I never worked with one, I don’t remember much else.”

They read in silence for a minute, and Rosemary, finding nothing of interest in her book, put that one aside and opened the third. 

After another few minutes, Rosemary closed her book with a thud and pushed it aside.

“It’s very toxic. Leave everything to experts,” she summarized when Laura looked up. 

“I may have something,” Laura said. “ ‘Death’s oleander does not transplant well. With one exception, it must be grown from seed in one location. Plants transplanted wither and die, contaminating the surrounding soil for a period of 1-5 years. The exception is plants transplanted with the assistance of amber crystals under a full moon between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.’” 

“Well, well, well,” Rosemary peered over Laura’s shoulder to read the relevant passage for herself. 

“Do we know if it was a full moon that night?” Laura asked when Rosemary had finished.

“We can certainly look it up easily enough. Witching things are often dependent on the cycle of the moon.”

Laura followed Rosemary over to the moon calendar posted prominently on the wall of the library. 

“There!” Laura stabbed her finger on the full moon symbol on the 22nd of September. “And that morning was also the fall equinox.”

A startled cry from the corner of the room made them both turn. Ms. Crag now sat on the table where Maud and her friends were seated. Rosemary frowned. She hadn’t seen Ms. Crag come in, and she had been facing the door the whole time, though it was possible she had been distracted with her reading. 

“We’ve got to tell HB, now,” Maud said, reaching through Ms. Crag to grab something on the table. Mildred and Enid both opened their mouths as if to protest, but Maud glared them down. Laura stepped in front of them as they tried to hurry from the library.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Julie, the girl who was sick the night before Mr. Gillman died, found this crystal on the chair beside her bed in the morning when she woke up,” Maud explained, holding a crystal up. “It’s blue calcite, which is used for astral projection. That didn’t make sense to us, so we tried to figure out what this crystal was designed for. When we activated it, it projected Ms. Crag.” Enid and Mildred nodded enthusiastically behind Maud. 

Laura held her hand out for the crystal, and Maud reluctantly relinquished it. 

“I’ve seen these all over the castle,” Laura said after a closer examination. “On the window sills, on the side table in that little sitting area. I assumed students left practice crystals laying around, or that they were witchy decorations.”

“I think we all need to go see Hecate right now,” Rosemary said as Laura handed the crystal back to Maud. “Where would Ms. Hardbroom be at this time of day?” she asked the girls. 

Maud quickly led the way through the halls, stopping briefly to collect several crystals off of a window ledge as they passed. When they arrived at a dark wood door, Maud hesitated. Rosemary stepped forward and knocked quickly before opening the door. 

“Hecate, I need to speak to you,” she said before Hecate had a chance to berate her for interrupting. Hecate nodded and turned to her students.

“Since I can see very few of you will actually have a viable potion at the end of this lesson, we will start again tomorrow. I expect improved results. Dismissed.” With a wave of her hand, she banished all the cauldrons. She stepped to the door, took in the group of students with a glance, and transferred them all to her office with another wave of her hand. 

When they appeared in Hecate’s office, Rosemary saw that Enid was about to hand something to Laura. 

“Do not complete that action, Ms. Nightshade,” Hecate said, her voice cold. Enid snatched back her hand to Laura’s puzzled frown. “Now, what was it you girls had to show me?”

Maud pulled the crystal from her pocket, pulled a chair out from the table, and set the crystal on the seat.

“Julia found this on the chair next to her bed the morning Mr. Gillman died.” Turning to face the crystal, she held her hand over it and muttered a few words under her breath. Ms. Crag’s seated figure sprang into being on the chair. It turned, nodded at Hecate, then reached out next to itself. Rosemary realized that, were there a sleeping child there, it would be dabbing the child’s head with the cloth it was holding. 

Maud then pulled the crystals they had collected on their way through the halls from her pocket and laid them on the table. “We also found these in the hallways. On window ledges and tables and such. We haven’t checked what they do, if anything, yet.” 

Hecate nodded and waved her hand over the crystals. A series of ghostly figures sprang into existence, accompanied by a variety of soft, eerie sounds. With another wave of her hand, Hecate deactivated the crystals. 

“This explains many things. I will contact the Inquisitors and inform Ms. Cackle. All of you, stay here.”

Things moved quickly from that point. Hecate returned with Ms. Cackle, and Maud again demonstrated the crystal of Ms. Crag, and Hecate demonstrated the ghost crystals. Rosemary then explained how she thought the Nerium maculata had been transplanted with the aid of amber. Within the hour, the Inquisitors had arrived and taken statements from all three girls, Rosemary, Hecate, and Ms. Cackle (Laura, much to her ire, had been sent to her room so the inquisitors would not know that a non-magical person, dispensation or no, had been meddling in magical affairs). Ms. Crag was taken into custody. 

That night Rosemary and Laura again ate dinner in Hecate’s room. 

“Why did she do it, did she say?” Laura asked as Hecate handed them plates from the cart she had summoned. 

“A combination between professional rivalry and a failed romance,” Hecate said, handing Rosemary the last platter and taking the third seat at the table. “Her thesis was on the use of crystals to amplify chanting. He refused to work with her. And because he was popular, despite not being a very good chanter—that storm really was him—a lot of others refused to work with her as well. Put her back nearly a year on graduation. Then a couple of years later, they went out on a date that apparently ended badly. It's unclear why she waited so long, but she arranged for our previous teacher to be unavailable so that she could be here. She got the date of the full moon a night off was here instead of Pentangle's, where they were scheduled to be on the full moon. So she goaded him into showing off for Ms. Bat, knowing that he never could control a weather spell, and then lured him to the garden and shoved him into the bush.”

Rosemary shook her head. “To have so much bitterness, after so long. It’s a shame.”

“What will happen to her?” Laura asked.

“She’s confessed to a severe violation of the witch’s code as well as a violation of British law. Her powers will be bound, and she will go into the regular British prison system as a convicted murderer.” Hecate explained. “We don’t have the resources for criminals of that level, and having to live where no one even knows magic exists is considered quite cruel.”

Laura opened her mouth to make what Rosemary was sure would be a rude comment, but stopped when Rosemary kicked her in the ankle under the table. 

 

***

 

The next morning, Hecate pulled Rosemary aside as she and Laura were leaving the dining hall.

“I was wondering if you would do me yet another favor,” she asked quietly. 

Rosemary nodded. “Of course, what do you need?”

“I was wondering if you would have a word with Mildred Hubble, about your time here and experience at university. She’s more powerful than you, but much less disciplined. I’m worried if she does not succeed in being a witch, she could be a genuine danger. Perhaps you can get through to her where Ada and I have not been able to.” 

“I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, but I will certainly give it a try.” Rosemary said.

They waited by the door until Mildred, Maud, and Enid approached.

“Mildred Hubble.” Mildred started, looking automatically guilty. “I believe you would find a conversation with Ms. Boxer informative. You have been excused from your first class.” Mildred and her friends looked at Rosemary with a combination of curiosity and suspicion. 

“The rest of you have not been excused,” Hecate said, and disappeared. Maud and Enid, after a shooing gesture from Mildred, reluctantly made their way towards their first class, leaving Rosemary and Mildred in the quickly emptying dining hall. 

“Well, Mildred, let me tell you about how I came to be a student at Cackle’s Academy.”

 

***

 

Hecate transported them directly into their living room, baggage and all, shortly before lunch. 

“Don’t be a stranger, Hecate,” Rosemary said, giving her a hug. “And if you could give Mildred an extra mirror credit or two to call me, I would appreciate it.” 

Hecate looked curious, but nodded without asking any questions. “Thank you both for your help. I know both students and staff feel much safer knowing that the murderer has been apprehended.”

“It was our pleasure,” Laura said. “And it was lovely to meet you. We really must have tea some time so you can tell me more of what Rosemary got up to in school. But if you could avoid the appearing out of nowhere and scaring the living daylights out of me in the future, I would appreciate it.”

Hecate merely raised an eyebrow and disappeared.

**Author's Note:**

> Phantomlistener, I hope you enjoy this. 
> 
> I matched, essentially, on all three fandoms you requested. I was so excited I tried to include all three fandoms, but nobody from Bletchley would consent to stay in the story. They kept wandering off for pages at a time and wouldn't tell me what they had been doing. So there are only the two. But I imagine that, if witches had much longer lifespans than non-magical people, Hecate would have been recruited by Jean for a witches version of Bletchley.


End file.
